Vietnam sends another blogger to prison for critical posts

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese court has sentenced a dissident blogger to 15 months in prison for posting online criticism of the government, the latest case in an intensifying crackdown against dissent in the one-party communist country.

At a two-hour trial at the Hanoi People’s Court on Wednesday, Judge Ngo Tu Hoc said Pham Viet Dao was guilty of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe the interests of the state” by posting dozens of articles that “distorted, vilified and smeared the senior leaders.”

Dao apologized for the “erroneous” details in some of his posts, but said he did not do that on purpose.

Earlier this month, a court in the central city of Danang sentenced a well-known blogger to two years in jail for the same charges.